1. SCOPE OF INVENTION
This invention relates generally to shopping carts which are used at supermarkets, department stores and the like, and more particularly to a system for collecting shopping carts from a parking area, storing those shopping carts and dispensing them back into the store for use.
2. PRIOR ART
Utilization of a shopping cart at grocery and department store centers has become commonplace. Shoppers may each use such a cart while proceeding through the store to gather items for purchase and checkout. After checkout, the purchased items are typically carried in the shopping cart to the customer's vehicle. After unloading the shopping cart, the customers will typically simply push the shopping cart aside and leave it outside in the parking area of the store. Periodically, employees must then retrieve the shopping carts scattered over a broad area of the parking lot and return them into the store. While unattended, these carts are subject to theft, collision damage with vehicles, vandalism and weather deterioration.
Applicants are unaware of any system which automatically attends to this gathering or retrieval, storing and dispensing of shopping carts without employee involvement.
A number of prior art devices are directed to some aspect of shopping cart storage and/or handling. In the patent invented by Bradley, U.S. Pat. No. 3,561,567, a storage and dispensing system for shopping carts is disclosed which utilizes compartments within an elongated display case for storing the carts.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,013, Weller teaches floor-to-floor conveying means for movement of shopping carts between floors of a department store. Two tracks of different gauge width are provided to accommodate and guide both front and rear wheels of differing wheel base of the cart.
An apparatus for encouraging the restitution of a shopping cart such as in a reception area otherwise controlled by wickets is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,893 invented by Gillet. This patent discloses an apparatus having vertically hinged doors and dispenses a ticket or token when a proper cart is moved therethrough. This apparatus also identifies unacceptable shopping carts which are dissimilar to those for which the apparatus is designed,
Muellner teaches a cart conveyor and dispensing apparatus in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,072, This invention is directed to an enclosed conveyor for propelling a shopping cart therethrough. Shopping carts are propelled by engagement of their wheels by a continuous member that carries a cross bump or upwardly extending protrusion.
The present invention provides a shopping cart retrieval system which, without interfering with traffic flow, will facilitate retrieval of shopping carts from the parking area, store those shopping carts in either nested or unnested configuration and then dispense shopping carts into the store as required or desired.